Friday, August 10, 2012

Johnny Bruno

The case which follows contains such
gruesome and cold-blooded elements that it has been described by many
people, including Lane County District Attorney Pat Horton, as
“unparalleled” in the history of Lane County crime. And justly so, for
during the course of the investigation, homicide detectives uncovered
shocking, horrifying details of a sordid, sadomasochistic sex orgy that
led, ultimately, to the stabbing and dismemberment of an unwilling
participant.

This bizarre story opens in the college
city of Eugene, Oregon at approximately 12:30 on the morning of
February 24, 1978 when two human scavengers were rummaging through one
of the dumpsters of a west side shopping center in a search for
cardboard. They found plenty of what they were looking for, the
intended use of which was known only to them. However, as the couple
dug deeper into the trash bin, one of them came across a plastic bag
that apparently warranted further investigation.

The bag must have weighed at least 25 to
30 pounds or more, but it was easy to pull free. They had it lifted out
of the bin and onto the pavement in no time at all, anxiously tearing
open the bag to examine their “find.”

At first glance, the contents of the bag
simply appeared to be a couple of chunks of discarded meat, one small
piece and one large piece, probably spoiled and thrown out a couple of
days before from the meat department of the adjacent grocery store.
However, upon closer examination, the cold, rancid smelling meat
suddenly looked frighteningly familiar, almost human!

While examining the large piece of meat,
one of the rummagers noted there was very little blood, about as much
as would be present in butchered, prepared beef. Although the smell of
the meat was nearly intolerable, the men’s curiosity compelled them to
examine the smaller piece. Although the smaller piece was nearly
unrecognizable, it faintly resembled a severed, mutilated female
breast!

Sick and retching from revulsion, the man
threw the meat to the pavement and vomited. Following a few moments of
illness and nausea, the two regained some of their composure and
rushed to the nearest telephone and called the Eugene Police
Department, informing the cops of the wretched discovery.

Due to the lateness of the hour, not to
mention the seriousness of the trash bin discovery, the police
dispatcher who took the call knew he would have to wake up someone with
higher authority. He chose to wake up Lt. Don Lonneker, detective
division commander.

When Lt. Lonneker and the first police
units arrived, officers immediately cordoned off the area to hold back
the curious onlookers and the graveyard shift of press members in an
attempt to preserve any bits of evidence that might be present.

After the area had been completely sealed
off, police detectives took statements from the two midnight rummagers
regarding the events that led to the discovery of the two pieces of
meat.

The police personnel set up lights and
began going through other trash bins and garbage cans in search of
still more body parts, but when it was evident there was nothing more
of any significance to be found, the two pieces of meat were wrapped up
and sent off to the medical examiner’s office.

In the meantime, the Eugene Police
Department launched a massive search effort of other garbage dumpsters
and cans in the vicinity of the west side supermarket where the alleged
body parts were discovered. Unfortunately, their efforts were futile.

A few days later Dr. Ed Wilson, deputy
Lane County medical examiner, reported that tests had determined that
the larger piece of meat was that of a female thigh, which had been
severed just above the knee and from the groin to the waist, and that
the smaller piece was a female breast, ravaged by so many human teeth
marks that it was nearly indistinguishable as a human anatomical part!
Dr. Wilson reported that further tests were being conducted in an
attempt to identify the victim’s blood type.

Meanwhile, police detectives began
checking their female missing person’s files, singling out two young
women who were reported missing at approximately the time the body
parts were discovered in the shopping center dumpster.

The cops considered Elizabeth Green as
the most likely victim, although no hard evidence had been found
linking the 24-year-old mother to the mysterious and gruesome thigh and
breast. Mrs. Green was described by friends and relatives as a
dependable and a devoted mother, and was reportedly to have picked up
her infant daughter at the hospital on the day of her disappearance.

According to hospital officials, Mrs.
Green arrived at the hospital on the day in question at approximately
11:00 a.m., and she nursed her baby that had been born five weeks
prematurely. She was last seen by a parking lot attendant as she drove
away from Eugene’s Sacred Heart General Hospital shortly after 11:00
a.m., and her car and purse were found the next day in separate parking
lots in the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Franklin Boulevard.

Pamela Lee Bruno, 24, was another woman
the cops added to their list of possible victims. Mrs. Bruno, a
childless housewife, was described as white, 5 feet 8 inches tall, and
approximately 165 pounds. She had blonde shoulder-length hair and hazel
eyes. She lived with her husband in the 4600 block of Main Street in
nearby Springfield in one of several run-down, almost uninhabitable,
apartments.

According to Springfield Police Chief
Brian Riley, Mrs. Bruno was last seen by her husband, Johnny, at their
apartment on February 16th. According to Riley, she was wearing a short
brown plaid coat, blue jeans, and brown shoes. She did not own a car,
and relied on hitchhiking and taxicabs for her transportation.
Considered by many to be a heavy drinker, Mrs. Bruno was known to
frequent the local bars and taverns.

According to Mrs. Bruno’s husband, Pamela
was gone when he awoke on the morning of February 17th. However, he
didn’t report her as missing until February 22nd.

“This has happened several times in the
past, according to Mr. Bruno,” said Chief Riley. “It’s not unusual for
her to be gone this long.” According to Chief Riley, Mrs. Bruno was
reported missing eight or nine times in recent years. But, he said, her
most recent disappearance was different and unusual because none of
her friends or relatives had heard from her for over two weeks, and she
was never gone for more than two or three days at a time.

In the meantime, with only the thigh and
the breast to work with, forensic scientists from the Oregon State
Police Crime Labs in Eugene and experts from the University of Oregon
were able to determine, by studying the bones, that the victim was a
young woman between 18 to 30 years of age, and that she was of medium
weight, approximately 140 to 160 pounds. They also determined that the
blood type found in the severed parts was not of the same type as Mrs.
Green, thus eliminating her as the possible victim.

However, the scientists were continuing
to work round the clock in an attempt to connect the severed body parts
with Mrs. Bruno. But unless they could locate some kind of official
record listing her blood type, little progress in linking the parts was
unlikely. The scientists did say, however, that the description they
arrived at fit more accurately with Mrs. Bruno than with Mrs. Green or
any other woman who was reported missing at that time.

The technique the scientists used to
confirm that the thigh came from a woman was relatively simple. They
merely examined tissue samples under a microscope in search of “Barr
bodies,” which, in simplest terms, are tiny specks or dots appearing in
the nucleus of a cell that are present in females but not in males.

The detectives turned to the help of an
anthropologist specializing in bone structures to help narrow down the
age gap of the victim. The techniques involved were far more
complicated than those used in determining whether or not the victim
was male or female. They had to make estimations and calculations based
on measurements of the length and diameter of the thigh bone and
compare their findings with statistical tables and graphs. But when
their tests were completed, they determined that the victim was between
25 and 30 years of age.

“We’re taking a further interest in
Springfield’s missing woman,” said Lt. Don Lonneker, detective division
commander, after conferring with other detectives from several local
law-enforcement agencies.

In the meantime, Springfield police stepped up their efforts in
their search for Mrs. Bruno, and checked further into the backgrounds
of the missing woman and her husband.
The cops soon discovered that the Brunos had lived in the Springfield
area for about three years, having moved there from Vancouver,
Washington. They were married for seven years, but had no children.
Digging still further into their backgrounds, police detectives soon
discovered that Johnny Bruno was convicted in Vancouver for driving
while under the influence of intoxicants and for hit and run, and that
both he and his wife were convicted of contributing to the delinquency
of a minor.
According to the Bruno’s former probation officer, the latter charge
was a result of an incident in which Mrs. Bruno invited two 15-year-old
girls into their apartment and gave them alcoholic beverages, then
proceeded to have explicit sexual intercourse with her husband as the
two girls excitedly looked on! Johnny Bruno then had intercourse with
one, possibly both, of the young girls during the incident after
arousing their prurient interests.
Meanwhile, police divers searched the area near the university and
the parking lots where Mrs. Green’s car and purse were found, but they
found nothing to help them locate the missing woman. According to Lt.
Lonneker, however, divers did find a rusty knife in the water, but
denied that it had any significance to the severed thigh and breast
case. “It unquestionably has no bearing on our investigation,” he said.
Lonneker did say, however, that the severed thigh “appears to have
been cut with a knife.” He also said that he had temporarily suspended
the search for additional anatomical parts and other physical evidence
connected with the murder and missing person’s cases after a week of
exhaustive efforts. “We’ve simply run out of places and directions to
go,” he said.
In the meantime, on February 28th, detectives went to the Bruno’s
cottage in Springfield to obtain hair samples from Mrs. Bruno’s hair
brush, and they attempted to find out what her blood type was by
conferring with her husband. But he simply repeated that he didn’t know
her blood type, and all that detectives left with were a few strands of
long blonde hair and the frustration of knowing that it was likely to
be some time yet before positive identification of the severed thigh
and breast could be made.
According to Dr. Ed Wilson, deputy Lane County medical examiner,
investigators knew that the female victim had not been dead for long,
unless the thigh and breast had been preserved by freezing, which they
seriously doubted. He also said they could only retrieve a small blood
sample from the body parts, but stressed that it would be enough for the
Oregon State Police Crime Labs to establish the victim’s blood type,
the results of which would soon be known.
If the scientists could have obtained more blood, said Wilson, they
would have attempted to measure the amount of prolactin (a hormone) in
the blood and could possibly have determined whether or not the victim
had been nursing a child, a clue that could have been of vital
importance to an investigation of this nature. But considering the small
amount of blood they had to work with, the blood type identification
was the best they could hope for.
The first real breakthrough in the case came when detectives finally
learned Mrs. Bruno’s blood type through her medical records in
Vancouver, Washington, which they wouldn’t release to the press. And
almost as soon as they had discovered the missing woman’s blood type,
the Oregon State Police Crime Labs reported to detectives that their
samples were of the same blood type as Mrs. Bruno’s type.
Considering that detectives now knew that the victim was a female
Caucasian, 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 7 inches in height, and that she
weighed approximately 140 to 160 pounds, they now felt Pamela Bruno
might be the victim that had been so savagely butchered.

A short time later, Springfield police Detective Don Bond paid a
visit to the Bruno apartment. He told Mrs. Bruno’s husband that it was
likely his wife was dead, and that it was now believed that the thigh
and breast were parts severed from his wife’s body, although they were
not one hundred percent certain Mrs. Bruno was the victim. While
Detective Bond was relating the details to Mr. Bruno, Bruno’s dog came
barking into the room, at which time Bruno became irritated and angry
with the animal.
“I’ve got to get rid of that damn dog, too,” Bruno remarked to Bond.
It was at that precise moment that Bond began to suspect that Bruno
killed his wife, although he didn’t immediately acknowledge Bruno’s
apparent Freudian slip of the tongue. Instead, he acted as if he hadn’t
noticed and asked Bruno to visualize the severed thigh found in the
trash bin. Astonishingly, Bruno described to Detective Bond precisely
how the thigh had been severed!
The investigation continued, and finally, on March 10, the severed
thigh and breast were positively identified through laboratory analysis
as being parts of what was once Pamela Lee Bruno.
With this sudden new development, police went to the Bruno apartment
with search and arrest warrants, but in spite of their efforts they
could find no traces of blood or other physical evidence that would
indicate the murder occurred inside the Bruno’s residence.
Police arrested Johnny Charles Bruno just the same, and took him to
Springfield Police Headquarters for further questioning. Bruno was
cooperative for the most part, and seemed to want to help the police. On
a “cop’s hunch,” Detective Bond told Bruno that they thought someone
else was also involved in the grisly murder.
“Well, you know, don’t you?” Bruno told the cops. He then broke down
and cried, making a full confession of how his wife was repeatedly
stabbed and dismembered, and implicated one of his friends and
co-workers, Charles Haynes, 31, and Haynes’ wife, Lionetti Anita, also
31. The two men worked together for nearly three years as tree planters
for a local firm, and Mrs. Bruno and Mrs. Haynes were known to
associate with each other when the Brunos would visit the Hayneses.
On Saturday, March 11th, police went to the Haynes’ rented house in
Eugene, located in the 800 block of West Fifth Avenue, a poor area of
town, and arrested Charles Leroy Haynes. The next day, when Mrs. Haynes
appeared at Springfield Police Headquarters, she too was arrested.
All three suspects were accused of “acting in concert” with each
other when the stabbing of Mrs. Bruno occurred, which police alleged was
on or about February 21st, and each allegedly participated in the
subsequent ritualistic dismembering of the victim’s arms, legs, breasts,
and head.
District Attorney Pat Horton would only describe the murder weapon as
a “stabbing instrument.” “There is a certain uniqueness in this case
which I think is unparalleled in Lane County,” said Horton. Springfield
Police Chief Brian Riley stated he couldn’t remember a murder case as
gruesome, and went on to praise the cooperative efforts of the
Springfield and Eugene Police Departments.
“I’ve seen a lot of investigations of crimes involving more than one
jurisdiction done in other places,” said Eugene Police Chief Pierce
Brooks, a former detective division commander at the Los Angeles Police
Department. “But I’ve never seen it done as effectively as here.”
In the meantime, Lane County District Court Judge Gregory Foote
ordered the suspects held without bail at the Springfield city jail,
where they would be appointed attorneys by the court.
Police now alleged that Pamela Bruno was killed and “slaughtered” at
the Haynes’ residence in Eugene, and Chief Brooks sent crime lab
supervisor Mary Ann Vaughn to the house to investigate.
Wearing an oxygen mask and tank inside the house, Ms. Vaughn used
special chemicals that emit toxic fumes to search for “trace evidence”
in each of the rooms of the house. Brooks said they were looking for
evidence “so minute that it might not be visible to the naked eye.”
However, District Attorney Horton and police officials refused to
comment further on the case, saying only that a Lane County grand jury
would be asked to indict the three suspects. When asked whether
additional body parts had been found, Horton replied, “To my knowledge,
(additional) body parts have not been found.”
On Thursday, March 16th, a Lane County grand jury returned murder
indictments against Johnny Charles Bruno, Charles Leroy Haynes, and his
wife, Lionetti Anita Haynes. The three suspects were transferred to the
Lane County Jail in Eugene, where they were held without bail.
As the weeks passed and turned into months, detectives continued
their investigation of the butcher-murder of Pamela Lee Bruno, but chose
to remain tight-lipped about their results, preferring to save the
details for the soon-to-begin trials.
It was Tuesday, May 23, 1978, and the Lane County Circuit Court of
Judge Roland Rodman was filled to capacity, with hopeful spectators
being turned away. Johnny Charles Bruno was the first to go on trial for
the brutal slaying and butchering of his wife, a trial that the people
of Eugene and Springfield would not soon forget. Inside the courtroom,
opening arguments were being heard.
Deputy District Attorney Brian Barnes’ opening statement was a
recounting of the events of the February 24th discovery of the severed
thigh and breast, a synopsis of the investigation leading to the arrests
of the three suspects, and details of Bruno’s confession.
“At the end of this case,” said defense attorney Harry Carp, “no
matter what evidence the state presents, you’re not going to have a
pretty picture. You’re going to be looking at a charnel house.”
“I suggest to you it was more than a charnel house,” countered
Prosecutor Barnes, “which, as I understand it, is a place where dead
bodies and bones are deposited. It was more like a slaughter house, an
unparalleled ritualistic killing involving blood, guts, and gore. It’s
something you will not easily forget.”
It was noted that Carp had filed notice of intent to argue his
client’s defense of extreme emotional disturbance or mental defect
which, under Oregon status, is the same as an insanity plea. However, he
reserved the right to change his defense theory if necessary.
When Prosecutor Barnes described how Mrs. Bruno’s body had allegedly
been strung up over the bathtub in the Haynes’ residence and
“disemboweled and butchered like an animal,” Mrs. Bruno’s mother,
grandmother, and aunt all left the courtroom hurriedly.
To visualize how a loved one had been drained of her blood, and had
her entrails scraped out into a cold porcelain bathtub, then to hear
details of the grisly dismemberment, was understandably more than a
relative of the deceased could bear.
In his statements, Barnes said the state would prove that Mrs.
Bruno’s death was caused intentionally by her husband and Mr. and Mrs.
Haynes during an evening of alcohol, marijuana, and group sex which
included sadomasochistic acts.
Dr. David Myers, assistant Lane County medical examiner who examined
the tissue of the thigh and breast, told the court that the breast was
so mutilated by human teeth marks that he could not immediately
recognize it. He also told the court that the body parts had almost no
blood, leading him to believe that Mrs. Bruno’s body had been drained of
blood through a cut or a wound caused by the woman’s killers.
The feeling in the courtroom was cold and dismal in a psychological
sense rather than physical. It was generally felt that in order for Mrs.
Bruno’s body to have been so completely drained of blood, her killers
would have had to have her strung up over the bathtub for quite some
time, a clear indication that her killers were in no hurry to get rid of
the body, and that they might well have even enjoyed the ritualistic
killing and subsequent hacking up of the victim’s corpse.

On the third day of Bruno’s murder trial, a packed courtroom of
curious spectators and a shocked jury listened intently as a taped
statement Bruno made to police was played.
In the taped statement Bruno made while being interviewed by
Springfield police detective Donald Bond, Bruno described how he and his
wife Pamela hitchhiked into Eugene and arrived at the Haynes’ home
about 8:00 p.m. Bruno said that after some heavy drinking (he was known
to down a six-pack of beer in less than 20 minutes) and pot smoking,
Charles Haynes and the Brunos decided to have a session of group sex.
According to the tape, Pamela Bruno had agreed at first to
participate in group sex with her husband and the Hayneses. “Pam agreed
at first,” said Bruno on tape, “then she didn’t, so we took her in the
other room and tied her up.” He also stated on the tape that he bit one
of his wife’s breasts so hard that he took off part of the nipple.
He also stated on the tape that Mrs. Haynes was the first one to stab
the victim because she was enraged when she saw her husband having sex
with Mrs. Bruno. He further stated that Charles Haynes stabbed the
victim several times after Mrs. Haynes passed him the knife, and that he
(Bruno) stabbed his wife only once.
Bruno said he stabbed his wife in the chest after Charles Haynes
passed him the knife, but “not very far ’cause I was so weak and leaning
against the wall and everything. I couldn’t believe this was
happening.”
“Haynes stabbed her quite a few times,” Bruno’s taped voice said,
repeating that he stabbed his wife only once. “I don’t even think I got
into her far enough because I was so weak at that point and so scared.”
The tape continued, and the defendant’s voice told the details of what
occurred after the stabbing.
“Chuck (Haynes) says,” according to the tape,” We gotta do something
about this now. We’re gonna have to cut her up,’ he says.” Bruno then
described how he helped Haynes drag Pamela into the bathroom,
occasionally breaking down and crying as he told the horrible details —
the blood, the torn flesh.
According to the tape, once they had the victim’s body over the
bathtub, her blood was drained. Later, the Hayneses and Bruno allegedly
cut up Mrs. Bruno’s body with a butcher knife, placing the severed
parts into several plastic garbage bags. They then drove away with the
packaged parts, according to the taped testimony, and deposited the
parts in trash containers around various areas of Eugene. However, the
only body parts that had been recovered by the police were the breast
and thigh found on February 4th.
When asked by Detective Bond in the taped interview if he knew what
he was doing on the night of the murder, Bruno replied he did know right
from wrong at the time. Bruno’s attorney had been trying to show Bruno
was too drunk on the night of the murder to form the specific intent
to commit murder.
When asked “if this act of sex and violence” would have taken place
had there been additional people present Bruno answered, “I would have
gotten some help. I would not have been so scared to be alone with him
(Haynes).” In yet another statement, Bruno made the implication that
Haynes had ordered him to participate in the killing and savage
butchery.
Warren Reid, a neighbor of Bruno, took the witness stand and
testified that the Brunos fought regularly. He testified that Bruno had
attempted to throw his wife in front of an oncoming car, and that he
saw Bruno kick Pamela in the back of her head while he was wearing his
work boots.
Reid also told the court that Mrs. Bruno would very often insult her
husband in front of others, telling all about her sexual activities
with other men.
“He would sit back and take it for a long time,” said Reid. “But then
he would become violent with her, and she would fight back.” He
further stated that the Brunos were drunk or becoming drunk every time
he was with them, and that they fought in his presence almost every
time he visited with them.
As Reid continued his testimony, he said that after Pamela’s
disappearance Bruno told him “he knew Pam wasn’t going to return,” and
said that Bruno asked him at least two or three times “if I (Reid) was
able to kill someone.” According to Reid, Bruno often talked about
killing and death in relation to Bruno’s army experiences in Vietnam,
where he received a Bronze Star for bravery before being reduced from
the rank of specialist 4 to private for leaving his guard duty post to
see his wife.
On the seventh day of Bruno’s trial, the defense called Portland
psychiatrist Dr. Barry Maletzky to testify that Bruno “blacked out” on
the night of the murder. Maletzky, an expert on alcohol’s effects on the
brain, testified that Bruno appeared to remember very little about
what occurred on the night of his wife’s murder, and that his apparent
lack of memory was caused by alcohol.
“In a blackout,” said Maletzky, “a person is not processing and
retaining information in a normal way.” He also said Bruno didn’t forget
or repress what happened the night his wife was killed, but that
memories were never formed in his brain in the first place due to
alcoholic blackout.
It was clear that the purpose of the defense was to show that Bruno
didn’t intentionally commit murder, even though he admitted to the
police that he was involved. It is necessary to point out at this stage
of the trial that even if the jury accepts the arguments of no intent,
Bruno could still be convicted of felony murder which, according to
legal statutes, “is a murder committed in the course of another felony
such as rape or sodomy.”
“I think Pamela was a big part of Mr. Bruno’s life,” continued
Maletzky, “and he would not have planned to murder her. John is not a
leader. He’s not a strong person. It’s absolutely inconceivable to me
that he could plan such a crime.” He went on to say that Bruno was
constantly struggling to be accepted by others, and he always wanted to
be accepted in a group.
“I think if people suggested things for him to do,” testified Dr.
Maletzky, “he would go along. Under the influence of alcohol, he would
have gone along with anything…just to be accepted.”
Several other defense witnesses also took the stand and testified
that Mrs. Bruno was a very promiscuous woman, and that she drank
heavily. And according to Daniel Olsen, a volunteer for the Eastside
Baptist Church in Springfield, Mrs. Bruno jeered at her husband when he
attempted to become a Christian in the spring of 1977.
Olsen testified that he went to the Bruno’s apartment after Bruno
called the church seeking to “accept the Lord,” but when he arrived
Bruno was drunk. Olsen said he told Bruno to wait until the next night
because he should be sober for the religious experience.
But when Olsen returned to the Bruno residence the following night,
he testified, Bruno wasn’t home yet so he sat and talked with Mrs.
Bruno, who “indicated to me she was too far gone to be saved,” and
further stated that Mrs. Bruno started bragging about her numerous
affairs with other men.
Another defense witness, Philip Wright, who was an attendant at the
service station near the Haynes’ home in Eugene, testified that he
observed Mrs. Bruno walking down the middle of Sixth Avenue about 3 a.m.
on a morning in Mid-February. Wright testified that he called her off
the street because she appeared to be intoxicated. When she walked over
to the station, she asked to use the women’s room. But when he told
her the station had no restrooms, she dropped her pants and squatted,
and urinated on the ground in front of him.
In a rebuttal to the defense contention that Bruno blacked out on the
night of the murder, the prosecution presented Medford psychiatrist
Dr. Hugh Gardener, who testified that Bruno couldn’t have possibly
blacked out the night his wife was killed because he “indicated in
several ways that he remembered his role in what happened that night.
“Bruno had sufficient understanding of what was going on around him
to form an intent to kill his wife that night,” continued Gardener.
“He’s an amoral, selfish, sociopath who is quite capable of using
anybody for anything to satisfy himself.”
June Lerner of Newport, Mrs. Bruno’s grandmother, was called to the
stand as a witness for the prosecution. She testified that Bruno called
her on February 24th.
“He wondered if Joan (Mrs. Bruno’s mother, also of Newport) and I
could take this and if we were ready for it,” said Mrs. Lerner. “I asked
him what he meant,” she continued, “and he said there had been a
stabbing. I asked what he meant, and he said ‘forget it,’ and hung up.”
Nearing the end of the trial, John and Rose Martin both testified
that they were living at the Haynes’ home and were, in fact, sleeping in
the next room on the night Mrs. Bruno was allegedly killed! They
astonishingly reported that they heard nothing unusual. However, both
the defense and the prosecution agreed during the trial that the Martins
were deceptive in their answers when they were questioned during a lie
detector test about whether or not they were involved in the killing, a
clear indication that both defense and prosecution felt their
testimony in court was questionable.
After closing arguments were orated by the prosecution and the
defense, which took most of the last day of the three-week trial, all
that could be agreed upon was the uncertainty of whether they would ever
know the full story of what happened on the night of February 21st.
“We don’t know yet whether we have the full story of what took place
that night in the Haynes’ house,” Barnes told the jury only minutes
before they were charged with their obligations and went into
deliberations.
Although it seemed longer, the Lane County Circuit Court jury of five
men and seven women found Johnny Charles Bruno guilty of felony murder
after barely three hours of deliberations, because they decided that
his wife’s death occurred during the course of a sexual assault.
In the meantime, while Bruno was awaiting sentencing for his
conviction, Charles Haynes’ trial date was fast approaching. It was June
13th, only one day before his trial was to begin that Haynes
surprisingly waived his right to a jury trial and was swiftly convicted
by Judge William Beckett in a “trial by stipulated facts.” Judge
Beckett immediately sentenced Haynes to life in prison.
It should be pointed out that in his agreement to a trial by
stipulated facts, Haynes did not plead guilty to the crime of which he
was charged, but simply admitted that the state had enough evidence to
convict him. In such an agreement, the defendant retains the right to
appeal the verdict. If he had pleaded guilty, he would not have had the
right to appeal for there would not have been a verdict delivered.
Jack Billings, Haynes’ attorney, stated that his client would appeal
the verdict on the grounds that a portion of the state’s evidence was
“improperly admitted” in the case by a ruling of circuit Judge Douglas
Spencer. According to Billings, Spencer ruled on May 18th that
statements made by Haynes to the Springfield police about his role in
the killing would be admissible in Haynes’ trial.
However, Judge Spencer rejected Billings’ argument that Haynes’
statements were inadmissible as evidence. Billings had argued that
Haynes’ rights were violated because Springfield police allegedly
refused to let the defendant talk to a lawyer hired by Haynes’ family.
But the court ruled the statements as admissible because Haynes had not
hired the attorney in question himself, and furthermore had no
knowledge that an attorney had, in fact, been retained. The attorney in
question had been retained and dismissed within only a few hours,
supposedly because Haynes’ family decided they couldn’t afford the
cost.
In the meantime, Mrs. Haynes was still being held in Lane County Jail
awaiting trial. Her trial was postponed four times, and she was denied
bail three times. By November, 1980, it was beginning to look like she
may not go to trial at all, due mainly to the fact that she had
remained incarcerated since her arrest in March 1978.
The Oregon Supreme Court heard oral arguments concerning that very
issue from Mrs. Haynes’ attorney, who pleaded with the court to set his
client free because he contended that she had been denied a speedy
trial.
But the Supreme Court denied the requests, ordering Mrs. Haynes to
remain in jail. But the court said “that any further postponement of her
trial will no longer be ‘trial within a reasonable period of time.’
“The court stated that charges against her would have to be dropped if
she could not be tried or released on bail.
Meanwhile, the Oregon Supreme Court reversed Charles Haynes’
conviction on the grounds that Springfield police kept him from seeing
an attorney, a charge that Springfield police repeatedly denied.
Nonetheless, a new trial with a change of venue was ordered, this time
to be held in Salem.
Johnny Bruno and Lionetti Haynes were not so lucky. Bruno’s
conviction was upheld after his appeal, and he is currently serving a
life sentence. Mrs. Haynes was finally brought to trial and convicted of
first-degree manslaughter following a trial in which she vehemently
maintained her innocence. She was sentenced to 20 years by Judge William
Beckett, but the judge ruled that Mrs. Haynes be given credit for the
time she spent in Lane County Jail awaiting trial.
In May, 1981, Charles Haynes received his new trial in Marion County,
but was convicted after a two-week proceeding and was sentenced to
life in prison.
Haynes and his wife appealed, but on March 18, 1982, the Oregon Court
of Appeals upheld their convictions. More than four years after the
gruesome murder of Pamela Lee Bruno, her convicted killers’ cases were
now fully adjudicated, and all are serving their sentences at the Oregon
State Penitentiary and the Oregon Correctional Institution for Women.
Editor’s Note:The names Warren Reid: Daniel Olsen, Philip Wright, June Lerner,
John and Rose Martin, and Elizabeth Green are fictitious and were used
because there is no reason for public interest in these persons.

1 comment:

The courts are screwed up. All 3 of them shuld have been given the death penalty. It is complete BS that Mrs. Haynes who stabbed her first multiple times did not get the death penalty or life in prison. 20 years?!?! She is free now then. That means she will probably kill someone else sometime. What a bunch of perverts! Sex crazed,derranged, violent sociopaths. All of them were crazy even Pamela Bruno the victim. Losers. But she didn't deserve to be killed like that.

Also did anyone ever solve the case of the other missing woman Elizabeth Green? What happened to her? Can someone please answer if they know?